Sal Masekela, who was the longtime host of the X Games, attends the Oakley Learn To Ride In Collaboration With New Era on Jan. 19, 2013 in Park City, Utah. / Jason Merritt Getty Images for Oakley

by By Rachel George, USA TODAY Sports

by By Rachel George, USA TODAY Sports

Sal Masekela spent 13 years with the X Games, broadcasting it from its infancy to now being the premier event in the action sports world. In that time, he saw few crashes worse than Caleb Moore's.

Moore, 25, died on Thursday a week after a crash in the snowmobile freestyle final. He was hit by his snowmobile in the event on Jan. 24, but walked off the course. He later had a heart contusion that required surgery and a "brain complication" over the weekend.

Masekela has spent his life around action sports and witnessed the growth of snowmobiling in the X Games. Medals were first awarded in the freestyle event starting in 2007.

Although he left ESPN for Red Bull Media House last year, Masekela was watching on television when Moore's 450-pound sled landed on him. Moore under-rotated on a trick at the end of the run, causing the snowmobile's skis to plant in the top of the landing ramp.

"I thought (Moore's crash) was one of the worst," Masekela said. "I was in shock when he got up.

"He took the full brunt of the impact. It was horrifying."

Now Masekela thinks about moments in the broadcast booth where he talked about how close snowmobilers came to being hit by their sleds. Daniel Bodin and Jackson Strong both had crashes during the X Games in Aspen last weekend, but both avoided being hit by the machines.

In Moore's case, the Krum, Texas, native slid down the landing ramp before the snowmobile bounced on top of him.

"You don't think about what that means," Masekela said. "Now that changes everything as far as what that means."

ESPN, which owns the X Games, has promised a safety review and any appropriate changes. Masekela encouraged that so tragedies like this one might be prevented, comparing ESPN's position to one NASCAR took after the death of Dale Earnhardt.

"The onus is going to be on them that much harder because they run the risk of looking like it's only in their self-interest because there's no third party governing the X Games," he said. "I just hope that people don't pile on and try to use this as a way to write off action sports and the X Games.

"I hate when people call our culture 'thrill seekers,' " he continued. "It's not about thrill seeking. It's about doing something in your mind and heart that you visualize that's never been done before."

It's action sports' natural tendency toward progression. The X Games is the biggest stage for a new trick, something rewarded by the judges, and Masekela fears athletes trying them in competition when they haven't practiced enough.

It's that practice that makes extremely difficult tricks look easy. The one that caused Moore's crash - a Superman Indian Air Backflip - is one he'd landed many times before. He'd landed a more difficult trick earlier in his run.

The snowmobile freestyle competition is meant to be similar to freestyle motocross in the X Games, but Masekela said, "I personally just don't think it's possible.

"There's a limit to what's possible on a sled. ... Have we crossed that line yet? I don't know, but we're knocking on the door."

What changes can and should be made will be decided by ESPN after its safety review. On Thursday night, less than 24 hours after the first death in X Games history, Masekela reflected on who Moore was.

Only four years ago, Moore and his younger brother, Colten, made the transition to snowmobiles after riding all-terrain vehicles since childhood. Since then, Caleb Moore claimed four X Games medals, including bronze in the 2012 freestyle competition that Colten won.

"I think he'll be remembered as the happy-go-lucky Texan who came to the mountains and shocked the world," said Masekela. "Him and his brother coming in like two cowboys that came in and shocked the world and injected a new and exciting energy into freestyle snowmobiling and the X Games in general."